Editorial: How Biafra Will Crash In One Month

Editorial: How Biafra Will Crash In One Month

Many Southeasterners believe that the only way Igboland can develop will be when Southeast is plucked out of Nigeria. Then the Land of the Rising Sun will be free to achieve her potentials because every fault line within Southeast is caused by Nigeria.

If the Federal Government of Nigeria decides to create the Nation of Biafra, economic indicators show that the nation of Biafra will not survive.

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When Biafra is created maybe on May 29th, 2019 , during President Muhammadu Buhari’s speech. Firstly, the Federal Government will be relieved of the burden of sharing federal allocations to five Southeast states, Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo.

Secondly, the Southeast states depend heavily on the Federal allocation for survival.

In 2018, the five states in Southeast received a total of N262,817,369,147.19 from the
Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC). Abia State got N55.32Bn, Anambra N55.24Bn, Imo N54.18Bn, Enugu N53.10Bn and Ebonyi N44.95Bn. The combined Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) for the entire 5 states in the Southeast is N77.31Bn which is less than what Ogun State generated in 2018. Other states that collected more IGR than the entire Southeast include Rivers N112.78Bn and Lagos N382.18Bn.

If Biafra were to be, how will the new nation sustain her people without the almighty
Federal Allocation? What the Biafran promoters are saying is that once Biafra is birthed everything will fall in place. When Nigeria slid into recession in 2016, the
Southeast states were seriously affected.

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According to the article written by Olusegun Adeniyi on March 7, 2019, “The State of the 36 States”, many states in Nigeria are not financially stable, the Southeast states were not spared, Abia, Ebonyi, and Imo being the most notorious.

In Ebonyi State, He wrote, “For three years, the government was paying 50 percent of salaries to Core Civil Servants (CCS), teachers and local government workers who are owed the remaining 50 percent. As for gratuity, CCS is owed 60 percent of one year while teachers and local government workers are also owed 70 percent, also for one year. On pension, CCS, teachers and local government workers are owed 50 percent of three years based on the half salary that is being paid workers. Domestic debt stood at N55,168,747,532.82.”

“In Abia State, CCS are owed salaries of between two to 11 months; teachers, two to six months and local government workers, two months. In terms of gratuity, no worker in the state has been paid any for 16 years while the pension arrears are between three to 14 months. The rough estimate for pension and gratuity arrears, according to the NLC, is N25 billion. Mostly owed are teachers and health sector workers. Domestic debt as at September 2018 was N70,954,143,266.67.”

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“In Imo State, the default on salary to CCS, teachers and local government workers was put at one month as at September 2018 but gratuity has not been paid to any worker across the board for the past 20 years. “The current government has neither paid gratuity nor pension in the last seven years. CCS have not been paid pension in 14 months. Workers of the bureau for public procurement and judiciary have not been paid salaries in 10 months and three months respectively”, says the NLC. Domestic debt stood at N101,964,536,533.04.”

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“In Enugu State, gratuity owed for five years to CCS, teachers and local government workers but it was being offset from May 2018 on a monthly basis while the old debt of five years remains. Domestic debt stood at N54,924,144,261.83.”

Anambra fared better, “In Anambra State, the CCS gratuity had not been paid for two months with teachers and local government workers owed gratuity of one year. Domestic debt stood at N2,612,431,503.89.”

If this is the financial state of the Southeastern states with Federal allocation, how will Biafra survive without Federal Allocation? It will definitely implode when the chips are down.

We need to start having conversations, develop policy directions and construct an economic blueprint on how the Southeastern economy will sustain itself without Federal Allocation. Currently, only Lagos State will sustain itself without Federal Allocation.

Those agitating for Biafra doesn’t have the best interest of the Southeast, they don’t have a plan or strategy to develop Igboland. They’re only interested in carving out a political empire for themselves.

Our leaders need to be more proactive in developing Southeast because currently, they are not doing enough.

Written By Obinna Osigwe For Anaedoonline

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